An overview of the way the Empire function within Cyrodiil, based on a similar document on TR's forums. This is sort of a master plan/generic design document from which we can extrapolate. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

The document very well describes the corruptness and intrigues of the political apparatus. I think it would be interesting to create some contrast there, though, with certain individuals believing in their duty and certain values. These individuals could be something like pivots in the political feuds, being both tricked and seeked as presumably faithful allies.

Though, from the document it sounds like corruptness having a long tradition, not even requiring a moral choice from the people in power. This may remove the need of secrecy or tough moral choices.

Opposedly imagine the council people having to give a holy oath of faithfulness, when entering their post, with some of them believing in this oath for a while, but most of them sooner or later giving by to the disruptive forces at work. This would create more moralic conflict and possibilities of exploitation for the ones that have turned corrupt or were from the beginning.

Edit: On a second thought. In order to rise to the rank of a council member, you probably already need to be very influencial and possibly corrupt. So maybe this possible dutifulness could be rather something for public servants that are not yet drawn into the corruptness of the higher ranking administration.

worsas wrote:The document very well describes the corruptness and intrigues of the political apparatus. I think it would be interesting to create some contrast there, though, with certain individuals believing in their duty and certain values. These individuals could be something like pivots in the political feuds, being both tricked and seeked as presumably faithful allies.
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Edit: On a second thought. In order to rise to the rank of a council member, you probably already need to be very influencial and possibly corrupt. So maybe this possible dutifulness could be rather something for public servants that are not yet drawn into the corruptness of the higher ranking administration.

These are all very good points. I think there is definitely a space for conflicted morality and corrupted innocence in Council-related affairs, though it may require some subtlety in the way it is presented.

You have the Colovian nobility. While the Nibenese Battlemage-Hierophants are already thoroughly corrupt, most Colovians are parachuted into the Imperial system with only their Virtuous Code of Colo-Nordic Knightly Conduct as a guideline. Now, this Code is in itself something of a subversion, because it allows the Colovian nobility to behave "amoral" as long as they follow the letter of the Code (something I want to get into for the Helvors on Stirk). This is something we can play with, either by allowing the PC to be the "corrupting" influence on someone else, or by letting them call a Colovian politician on their amoral behavior which they until then believed to be perfectly legit. This goes for many politicians who have been installed due to familial bonds, not just the Colovians.

We can have the player themselves be the figure being corrupted. To the outside, the Imperial government presents itself as a perfect and idealistic affair - all of this stuff about assassinations and lethal games of poker is only hinted at. It would be interesting to trick a player into joining the Imperial government from genuine conviction, and then gradually undo their principles in the rise to the top.

We can also make use of the genuinely unsettling positions that some of the provincial parties take. What if the player has to advocate for the Hist's hive-mind policies, Khajiiti habitual drug abuse, or Dunmer slavery? This also ties into the principle of Imperialism: you have the power to outlaw Bosmeri ritual cannibalism. Should you? is it not up to these peoples to make their own decisions? The fact that you as the player are selling out on your convictions does not mean that everyone else is.

Apart from the graphical overview of how the imperial administration, emperor and nobility are generally interveaved and who is under whose charge, there is still a lot of vagueness to this whole thing. We would need more concrete ranks in the respective factions and their detailled tasks and who deals with who. But other than that, this already gives a very good overall picture.

Also, there should be ideally something like a full imperial law with detailled regulations for county steads and provinces, maybe spread across several books. The Legal Basics of Anchivius could be part of that whole thing or a derivative work of some kind.